Talking about piston rings...
I once had the pleasure to be driving a Sprinter van loaded up with about 2 tonnes of piston rings through Lille to a Peugeot/Citroen factory near there. It was midwinter and about 11.30 at night and I was piling along a dual carriageway at about 85mph: raining too. Suddenly and without warning an unlit roundabout appears in my dipped headlights and I'm hard on the brakes and slewing into the island: can't miss. At the last second I'm off the brakes and careering around the roundabout (sideways). I can hear/feel the load moving around in the back: boxes crashing about.. Managed to miss the island and kept it on the road and upright too: even exited the roundabout in the right direction. Pulled over in a lay-by to take a peek, what a mess. whole lot was only held together with cling film (Glad wrap to you okies) to begin with and it had parted company with the pallets. small boxes and loose rings everywhere. I set about rearranging boxes onto the pallets and scooping up loose rings into burst box/cartons. Miraculously only about 5-6 rings were broken out of the whole f'kin lot and I was beginning to be optimistic that I could get away with it.
Rolled up at the car factory sometime after 1am and the storeman appeared with his fork-lift. Took the lot out but called me into the night manager's office for a signature. There some bolshy creep tore strips off me and refused to sign off on the delivery. After ten mins of me trying to claim it wasn't all that bad and that only a few rings were broken he still wouldn't budge. "Ok, I said, no problem: get me your boss or put the whole lot back on the van right now and I'll take them back to England. We can arrange another delivery next month" The blood slowly drained out of his face and I got my signature...
